Against the Current - Chapter 7
Chapter 7 - Squeezing Out
Hui'er peered stealthily into the east room several times before stepping lightly back into the western bedchamber. She whispered to Cao Lihuan, "She's still embroidering and hasn't even raised her head once. From the looks of it, she seems quite honest."
Cao Lihuan sneered, "She's only just arrived, so naturally she has to put on a show of diligence for a couple of days. Who knows what she'll be like later."
Hui'er frowned and muttered, "She is far too striking to look at. With a face like that, I'm afraid she won't stay grounded. I wonder what kind of background she has? Was she bought, or is she a hereditary servant?" Her own complexion was somewhat sallow and her build a bit stout, yet she was fond of beauty and vanity, so seeing Xianglan's snow-and-jade complexion and slender figure made her stomach turn sour with envy.
"Yingshuang told me—she's a hereditary servant whose father is a third-class manager in an antique shop," Cao Lihuan said, taking a sip of tea. "A family of that sort is neither high nor low, but they possess a bit of petty respectability, which actually makes them easy to manipulate. There's no need to worry about an insolent slave riding roughshod over her master."
Hui'er chuckled and said, "My good young mistress, let alone an insolent slave, even the ancestor of all insolent slaves would have to bow and submit before you."
With a self-satisfied expression, Cao Lihuan picked up her teacup and took a sip, then turned her head to instruct Hairui, "The two of you keep a close eye on her for me from now on." She added with a note of vexation, "That dead weight Zhao Yuechan—waste of all the fine jade bracelets I gave her—actually saddled me with a newly entered maid who hasn't even been trained!"
Hairui remarked, "Well, it did take them quite a few days of talking before they finally sent one over."
Hui'er pinched a piece of pastry, chewing as she said, "Who's to say otherwise? But the only person we can actually speak with is the First Young Mistress. Having someone sent over, flawed or not, is still better than nothing."
Still wearing a gloomy expression, Cao Lihuan gave a cold chuckle and said, "I'll bear with it for now, but once I'm married off, I will definitely exact my revenge! Throughout the entire Lin household, there isn't a single decent soul!"
"Who says there isn't? Our young mistress is an exceptionally good person!" Hui'er picked up a painted floral ceramic pot to refill Cao Lihuan's tea and exchanged a meaningful glance with Hairui.
Hairui chimed in with a smile, "Indeed. Tie all the young misses of this estate together, and they still wouldn't match our young mistress in talent, beauty, shrewdness, and capability."
This remark struck straight to the bottom of Cao Lihuan's heart. Unable to hold back the smile at the corners of her lips, she sighed, "It's just that I wasn't blessed with a good birth. Years ago, when my father was bedridden with illness and the family had so many children, there was no one to tend to his sickbed except me. The moment my father passed away, my mother fell ill as well, and before long she closed her eyes and left us. Not only was the family fortune squandered away entirely, but in the end, I didn't even manage to secure a decent match for marriage."
Hui'er put in, "Speaking of which, it makes my blood boil too. Given the young mistress's appearance and demeanor, if my lord and my lady were still alive, suitors would have beaten down our threshold! What kind of match couldn't you have found? Now... alas, it truly is a grievance for you, young mistress."
"The Ren family isn't bad either. Not long ago, when the Ren family sent carriage horses to the estate, I caught a glimpse of Young Master Ren. He is truly a man of striking talent and appearance, and the Ren family has a simple household. Once you marry over there, you'll only need to wait on the Ren family's old matriarch and sister-in-law. In a couple of years, when the younger sister gets married off, and a couple of years after that when the old matriarch passes away, the household will be peaceful and quiet—much better than marrying into those massive, complicated families." As Hairui spoke, Cao Lihuan nodded along, and her expression finally began to improve.
For a while, all remained quiet.
Before dinner, Xianglan brought the embroidered handkerchief she had finished over to Cao Lihuan. Seeing that she had completed one so quickly, Cao Lihuan could not help being greatly surprised. Taking it up for a closer inspection, she saw that the stitches were even and delicate, and the color scheme was soft and elegant. Though it was a small piece of embroidery, it looked exceptionally vibrant.
She felt quite satisfied, and her earlier dissatisfaction with Xianglan faded by two parts. However, feeling that failing to point out some flaws would fail to showcase her own cleverness, she deliberately picked out a few spots that she claimed were "poorly embroidered," and added, "Even though you embroidered it quickly, you shouldn't blindly chase speed at the expense of quality. The best embroidery is required. My needlework was taught by the finest embroiderer in Yezhou, and by the time I was seven or eight years old, my stitching was already much stronger than what you've done now."
Realizing the moment the words left her mouth that they sounded somewhat inappropriate, she put her smile back on and added, "Hairui's needlework is not fit to be seen, and Hui'er has too many other matters to manage. If you practice your needlework well, your day of standing out will come. Besides, in a grand courtyard, a maid who can do fine needlework always wins the favor of her masters. You've just arrived and don't understand anything; it's only because a kind-hearted person like me is pointing things out to you that you're learning. Other mistresses wouldn't care whether their maids live or die."
Xianglan had already figured out Cao Lihuan's temperament to some extent. Thinking to herself, This Cousin Mistress thinks too highly of herself, loves to elevate herself by stepping on others, and is not an easy person to get along with. I'll just play along and flatter her a bit, she assumed an expression of fearful awe and said, "Thank you, Young Mistress, for your care and guidance. It is my good fortune to have encountered a master like you."
True to form, Cao Lihuan broke into a smile. She picked out a piece of pastry from the dish before her that she didn't care much for, handed it to Xianglan, and said, "You've worked hard doing chores all afternoon. I saved this pastry especially for you; eat a piece and take a break."
Xianglan accepted the pastry, smiled, and said, "Thank you for the reward, Young Mistress. I'll go back to embroidering now."
As soon as she stepped out the door, the smile vanished instantly from Xianglan's face. She walked straight into the bamboo grove beside Luoxue Lodge, lifted the white-skinned flaky pastry to examine it, and a mocking curl touched the corner of her lips. She murmured quietly, "This afternoon I distinctly heard her shouting inside the room: 'There's too much osmanthus sugar in this white-skinned pastry; it's far too sweet and greasy—eating it makes me want to vomit. Hairui, take the remaining two pieces outside and feed them to the dogs. If the dogs won't eat them, throw them into the pond to feed the fish.' I exhaust myself to the bone embroidering a handkerchief, and not a single word of appreciation or comfort do I get—only a piece of pastry not even fit for a dog, yet she claims she 'saved it especially for me.' This Cousin Mistress is truly 'generous' indeed." She took a ferocious bite out of the pastry, only for a heavy rush of sweet, oily, cloying flavor to surge straight to her head, making her feel quite nauseous.
Chewing forcefully, Xianglan suppressed the urge to retch and swallowed the pastry down hard. She told herself, Chen Xianglan, you must remember the taste of this pastry. As long as you remain a servant in someone else's household, you will have to swallow this kind of humiliation day after day. But your destiny is not meant to be like this. You must steel your heart, cultivate endurance, smooth away your anger, and free yourself from this servant status as soon as possible, so that you can stand proud with dignity and prevent anyone from ever looking down on you again!
She stood in the bamboo grove for a moment, watching the evening sky dye the horizon a brilliant orange-red, listening quietly to the gentle murmur of the water, and silently reciting the Great Compassion Mantra twice. A breeze blew in through the window, brushing across her cheek and sweeping away the final trace of restlessness in her heart. Only then did she take a few deep breaths, straighten her clothes, and slowly walk back inside.
Early the next morning, Cao Lihuan brought out a length of bright red silk, sketched out an embroidery pattern, and instructed Xianglan to embroider a pair of pillowcases featuring mandarin ducks playing in the water. There were also bright red bridal robes and a "hundred-sons" robe, all featuring complex floral motifs that demanded immense time and effort.
Xianglan stood dumbfounded, thinking to herself: These are all essential items for a wedding trousseau, which ought to be sewn by the unmarried young lady herself. Only when her skills are too poor would she rely on her parents to arrange for hired embroiderers to rush the work. Why is the Cousin Mistress dumping this entire mountain of work onto me alone? When on earth could I possibly finish all of this? Working by myself, I'm afraid I couldn't even finish it in three years.
Cao Lihuan said, "All the work is here; get to it with a sense of urgency." With that, she told Hui'er to accompany her to pay her morning respects to the elders.
With no alternative, Xianglan had no choice but to bury her head in her work, threading and stitching. The workload was overwhelming, and to make matters worse, Cao Lihuan was an exceptionally picky taskmaster. Whenever anything fell slightly short of her standards, she would order Xianglan to cut out the stitches and redo them from scratch, capping it off with a reprimand: Clumsy and slow-handed! The maid Xiaoyuan, who used to manage needlework by my side, was a hundred times sharper than you. Or else: You are far too slow and clumsy. Xiaoyuan was much faster than you—she finished two pillowcases and an entire bedspread of magpies perching on plum blossoms in just half a year. Every time she finished scolding her, she would put on a warm smile and adopt a deeply earnest tone: I'm doing this for your own good. Which of the other mistresses takes the trouble to meticulously train people the way I do? You'll appreciate my good intentions in the future.
Whenever Xianglan heard such words, she had to put on a dull, obedient, and honest facade, saying "in all sincerity," "I know Cousin Huan is doing this for my good." She swallowed all her grievances, blindly playing the part of a docile fool.
As Xianglan possessed an agreeable disposition, appeared submissive and fragile, never slacked off or shirked her chores, worked with nimble hands, and spoke very little during her time in Luoxue Lodge, she gradually came to be regarded as honest and easily bullied. No matter what needed doing, people would call upon her: "Xianglan, come help me fan the stove." "Xianglan, use the rag to wipe down all the windows." "Xianglan, why hasn't the young mistress's soup been brought over yet?" "Xianglan, the young mistress says she wants to wear her pea-green dress; go rummage through the wardrobe and find it." "Xianglan, go wash the handkerchiefs and sew up those pouches." The demands were endless and varied. Because she was newly started, mistakes amid the rush were inevitable, which naturally earned her a fresh round of scoldings.
Xianglan spun around like a top all day long, often finding that before she could finish one task, another was piled on top of it. When distributing chores, Cao Lihuan invariably assigned the easy, high-visibility, and relaxing jobs to Hui'er and Hairui, while dumping all the heavy, grueling, and tedious tasks onto Xianglan. All day long, she took Hui'er with her to stroll through the gardens, chatting about whose hair ornament looked prettiest, whose face powder was of the highest quality, or how someone's outfit complemented their skin tone, laughing, playing, and making a commotion. Hairui would frequently vanish without a trace, slipping away to idle her time away, and Cao Lihuan would simply turn a blind eye to it.
Gradually, whenever Xianglan finished her chores, brewed soup in the pantry, or completed her needlework, Hui'er would snatch it away and say, "Alright, you can rest now. I'll take it inside myself." She would then present the item to Cao Lihuan to curry favor and win praise. Naturally pleased, Cao Lihuan would reward her with some small trinket and assign her another task, whereupon Hui'er would step outside and promptly dump that task right back onto Xianglan.
Xianglan silently endured it all, burying her head in her work without uttering a single extra word.